“Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company, and reflection must finish him.”
–John Locke–
To start off, I wish to thank Suthenboy and Trshmnstr in particular for inspiring me to write this after I read their pieces on rights, Natural Rights, and Natural Laws. Now for the meat of this piece.
After my trip to the United States last month (Florida Glibs Represent!), I came back to my residence in Japan with fresh thoughts on the conditions of my fellow Americans, a few souvenirs for the office, and an old kindle from my father packed with tomes on political philosophy and the fundamentals of capitalism (such works included were The Law, The Road to Serfdom, Free To Choose, etc.). This, along with the pieces I’ve read on this website (I cannot thank the Founders enough for giving liberty-lovers like myself a home) and recommendations by fellow users here, were the inspirations for getting me back into reading for my own entertainment and knowledge. My long academic career killed most if not all of my passion for private reading and studying for quite a number of years.
Lecture #1000 on how FDR Saved America with Socialism
When it came to education (by education I mean the system and the curriculum), my teachers were able to convey the basic information, but they unfortunately left a lot of important details out. For example, my colleagues and I were taught about what the Bill of Rights or the Declaration of Independence were as well as the U.S. government’s structure in our Civics and American History classes, but we were never taught WHY? What made America, what made our Founding Fathers develop and implement this revolutionary system? When it came to learning contemporary or inspirational political theories, we were only taught of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Locke vs. Thomas Hobbes (we were only taught the titles of their works, not exactly the content or comparisons of their works such as Two Treatises of Government and Leviathan respectively), and there were only passing references to the “Father of Capitalism” Adam Smith and Common Sense’s Thomas Paine. Also an honorable mention in class was The Federalist Papers however brief the mention was.
Regrettably, I had no idea about the significance and dare I say it, nature, of natural rights and natural law until just this last year or two! I also didn’t know about Cicero or Charles-Louis de Secondant aka Montesquieu. To those who may not know, Cicero was one of the earliest proponents of the priceless concept that is Natural Law and Montesquieu was a major influence for the United States’ system of a tripartite separation of powers. These two individuals were definitely major influences for the Founding Fathers and Writers of the Constitution, yet all the textbooks and readings we were ever assigned never mentioned them. We were also never taught about Alexis de Tocqueville and his classic work, Democracy in America among other prominent authors in early American history. Finally, we were also never taught about the intentions of the Founding Fathers or the Writers of the Constitution (as seen in Washington’s Farewell Speech, various personal letters, or in The Federalist Papers). It took me quite a few weeks of lunch breaks, slow office days, and weekends to go through various works and subsequent analyses to understand and digest them.
Seize the Memes of Production
This next bit tackles a very different subject from the above, but I feel it is also gravely important especially considering recent events. Another major concept we were never really taught about in school was the exact nature of Communism. To be sure, we learned the basics of Communism (The People™ own the means of production, classless society goals, y’all know the rest) or who Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov “Lenin”, Karl Marx, Mao Zedong, and Josef Stalin (gulags were also covered, thankfully) were in our World History classes. However, we were never taught exactly WHY Communism has failed in practically every attempt it has been implemented or why the concept DOESN’T look good or function even on paper.
With the “knowledge” I received from my school studies (this was all from Catholic private schools and my public college years), I was led to believe a government that ensures its citizens are totally equal, aren’t necessarily “poor”, and provided for is a good thing. What a shame that all the people who run this form of government always end up seizing more power and implementing Not-Real-Communism™. As a result, I was one of many young minds who merely thought it was a good concept on paper, but bad in application. To discover the answers and truth for myself, I had to dive straight into the heart of it: The Communist Manifesto. With an open mind and my almond primed, I finally read and understood for myself how rife with anti-life, anti-liberty, and anti-property rhetoric it was. I, for one, firmly believe in the concepts or the truths of Natural Laws and Natural Rights (ex. the rights to life, liberty, and property), all of which would be neutered by the philosophy and application of Communism (no absolute truths exist in Communism, Товарищ). If one is a member of the filthy “bourgeoisies” or refuses to cooperate with the revolution (looking at you Kulaks and Wreckers), their lives are to be forfeited for the sake of The People’s™ Revolution. If one wishes to ensure total equality in every way as well as micro-manage everyone’s actions and thoughts (ex. Communism requires the erasure of disgusting “Bourgeois-influenced” pre-revolutionary thoughts and memories for it to “work”), it would require a most repressive authority that would definitely violate everyone’s basic liberties. Finally, the abolishing of “Bourgeois” private property (such as the fruits of one’s own labor) and inheritance rights are self-evidently anti-property and anti-prosperity.
In my experience, those of us who grew up after the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union fell (I was born in May 1992) were not told of many major contemporary references that could teach us about the horrors and evils of Communism’s application (yes, there are numerous unfortunate examples even today, but these are usually hand-woven away by some of our “experts”, educators, and media as the results of “American Capitalist” corruption, poor management, or just poor luck). However, I was fortunate my grandparents who were politically exiled after the Cuban Civil War (to paint a picture of them: one of my grandfathers was a soldier who fought and suffered injuries during the fights against Fidel Castro and the other was a toy store manager who was tortured and imprisoned for a crime he and his coworkers did not commit) taught me about life under that repressive system. I also heard other experiences from people such as North Korean defector Park Yeon-mi and Chinese immigrant Lily Tang Williams (I recommend watching John Stossel’s interviews and pieces with them in “Playing the Victim” and “100 Years of Communist Disaster” linked at the bottom if you haven’t seen them yet).
More Likely Than You Think
To conclude my self-study to ascertain why Communism could never work and how vital natural rights and laws are, I took some time to reflect on my life. In my experience, I never liked being coerced to give away my possessions or my time to random people (I try to be a charitable person, but it is always of MY own volition). My social interacting growing up also strengthened my belief and practice of the golden rule (thank you parents and my local church for instilling that in me). I also discovered how people even under the most similar socioeconomic backgrounds could have entirely different outcomes due to all sorts of variables and factors, many of which ultimately can never be controlled. Some of my closest friends ended up working all over the country for various companies, some are still stuck with their parents and getting their acts together. Finally, upon reflecting on my experiences living in a very rural part of Japan by myself with minimal assistance for years as well as the experiences of my grandparents when they first came to the United States of America with just a suitcase at best, I learned how they, other individuals, and myself can have the strength, will, and initiative to be self-sufficient and not just survive, but THRIVE. Our natural rights give us the foundations we need to build our lives and prosper, forwarding the progress of human civilization.
In conclusion, I believe self-study is important if not essential to an individual’s growth. Sure, our education system does a bang-up job teaching its citizens (please laugh), but for us to have a true understanding of why things are the way they are, how we can build a better future for not just ourselves, but for our families and those we care about, and what we can do as individuals to ensure the above, we must study for ourselves. Whether we study by reading the works of various minds of the past, speaking with our forefathers, the elderly, or friends about their experiences and beliefs in detail, or simply reflecting on our own lives and experiences, we should practice self-studying to complete our intellectual journey as much as possible in the short life we have.
As a final note, I wish to encourage everyone here to follow John Locke’s advice to take a few moments when you can to sit down and read a book, even if it’s one with content you may strongly disagree with (if anything, you can learn how to argue against a particular idea/belief more effectively), spend time with your family, loved ones, and friends, and finally, spend some personal time to reflect on significant moments or influences in your life that shaped your beliefs or who you are as a person today.
Thank you fellow Glibs for reading and I hope you all have a pleasant day.
Credits and Inspirations:
“What are Rights?” and “What are Rights? An Encore” – Trshmnstr
“Not Just Self-Evident” – Suthenboy
The Glibertarian Community
The 5000 Year Leap: Twenty-Eight Great Ideas That Are Changing the World – W. Cleon Skousen
The Communist Manifesto – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Two Treatises of Government – John Locke
Ameritopia – Mark Levin
My Parents and Grandparents (R.I.P. Abuelo Tim, I love and miss you very much)
“Playing the Victim” with John Stossel featuring Park Yeon-Mi
“100 Years of Communist Disaster” with John Stossel and Lily Tang Williams
In my experience, I never liked being coerced to give away my possessions or my time to random people
As one of the bright students, I hated projects requiring us to work in groups.
Right? Most of the time nobody would take initiative anyways so getting any progress done was always a pain.
“Manners maketh the man”
-some movie or other
Now hit my mother-f’in Theme Music !
Thanks, Lancelot. Bless those movies by the way.
I did not think I’d love those movies as much as I did.
Second one was a bit meh, but the first was an unexpected treat.
Agreed.
In my experience, those of us who grew up after the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union fell (I was born in May 1992)
I was studying Russian in St. Petersburg when you were being born. Get off my lawn. :-p
And the summer of ’89, I was visiting my relatives in Bavaria. The top story on the news every night was the tent city on the grounds of the West German embassy in Prague because Hungary was no longer admitting them. (When Hungary opened up a new border point with Austria earlier in 1989, a bunch of East Germans stormed the opening ceremony to get to the West.)
I lived in Bavaria in ’86 and I remember thinking how cute it was that the Wessis steadfastly maintained the pretense that unification would happen some day – like the border between East and West had a dotted line in atlases and shit. Then ’89 happened while I was mostly partying through college and was barely paying attention but it sure took me by surprise.
It took a lot of people by surprise — my buddies in Germany, not to mention everybody in the Department of External Affairs (here in Canada) and the State Department in the U.S.
Lotsa tall foreheads came to look pretty clueless when the Wall fell.
Tall foreheads or flappy heads?
Yes.
Apropos… I’m really looking forward to Deutschland 86 in a couple weeks. Deutschland 83 was a lot of fun. Hopefully they’ll do Deutschland 89 if enough people watch….
I watched the first episode of Deutschland 83 quite a while ago. I should pick that up again.
Atomic Blond has re-whet my appetite for that era – I assume Deutschland 83 has plenty of bad English accents and HLA, right?
Not really, since it’s in German.
Dunno what “HLA” is.
I was kidding w/ the accents.
Must I enact your labor?
(Atomic Blond had both of those things)
Ah, OK. Could be I also didn’t know what Atomic Blond was.
PS. There’s man-on-man and some boobies, FWIW
Atomic Blond
Probably worth your time – the music alone will bring you back (we’re of an age, as I recall).
It looks great, though the plot probably doesn’t bear too much scrutiny, and 155 lb Charlize kicking everybody’s ass isn’t all that realistic, but it’s still fun.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2406566/
A while back I mentioned that I enjoyed Atomic Blonde. Someone asked if it was any good, and I said it was more Jane Wick than Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I just found out recently that it was directed by one of the two guys that did John Wick (1). So that explained a lot.
Oh, that makes total sense.
Jane Wick: 80’s Berlin
Slightly easier to believe Keanu kicking asses though.
and 155 lb Charlize
Correction, she’s more like 55kg, so 120 lbs.
It presents itself as something that I have no interest in other than time & place. Gimmicky, Hollywood big budget etc. Some day, maybe.
The fight choreography is excellent, and she shows the bruises to match the beating. So even though the premise isn’t quite believable, the action is very stunning (I thought).
I have JW2 and AB on my DVR. I go back and watch them just to see how the fight scenes are laid out.
I’ll give you that – she is properly beat-to-shit after the fights.
Yeah… not into fight scenes, really. To each his own!
Yeah… not into fight scenes, really.
Ah, yes, you’re not the target audience, then. The plot isn’t otherwise strong enough to recommend it.
I will stay off your lawn.
That’s crazy, but it just goes to show just how much people didn’t want to be in the glorious USSR. Watching all that go down must’ve been one hell of a experience.
I remember sitting on my sofa in Australia watching them dancing on the wall with tears in my eyes.
Still gets me emotional.
Did you cry at the end of ‘Pretty in Pink’ too?
Most of my relatives on my mother’s side were in Eastern Europe. It was incredibly emotional to see the wall come down. When my mom lived in Europe, she tried to get a visa to go meet her grandmother. Never got it.
That was about the time I sent a deposit to USC for my MBA program, then turned on the TV to see the neighborhood on fire.
In the Summer of ’89, I was being commissioned as an Armor officer in the Army and preparing to defend the country against the Red Menace.
You are indeed way ahead of many of us that came to those conclusions much later in life. The educational system has been successful for many years in teaching collectivism. My mother told me as a very young boy how FDR saved us from the extended Depression ad infinitum. My parents had been led to believe in the Roosevelt alphabet and of course passed their beliefs along to us kids.
You have managed to dig yourself out of the hole earlier than many of us. We need more Raphaels in the world.
I am thankful for my mom being largely apolitical but nevertheless setting a good example.
It’s a shame how long they were able to get away with peddling collectivism and the FDR worship. My only regret is that I didn’t climb out of that hole until my late college/early work life.
I’ve met a boatload of proggy millennials. I’ve met a few Ben Shapiro type millennials. I’ve met millennials that just don’t give a shit about anything. I haven’t met even a single millennial that has property rights as the central foundation of their political philosophy. My data set is certainly limited, but sure seems like the future is bleak.
Hi!
Now you’ve…er…”met” one.
I suppose I should amend that. Yes, you have met one.
Damn, sorry. Military people always just seem older to me.
Property rights are something that younger people are going to take for granted. Most of the little socialist fuckers you meat really aren’t interested in talking to you about property rights, either. They don’t think that way and haven’t been educated on economic systems to that degree.
There’s a vast assumption with younger people that because things are thus, they are naturally thus. It takes some education and experience to realize that many of the things they take for granted could disappear in a heartbeat.
They have been educated against it. Ask a 4 year old about property rights and compare his answer to a 15 year old.
Hi staff.
Depending on the exact definition, I sometimes fall into the category of ‘Millennial’.
I believe the original definition was the cohort that turned 18 in 2000 or 2001 (I forget which one). So the first adults of the new millennium.
The definition has been stretched all over the place since then.
Very good article. As someone who was born in 1963 and had a very different educational experience and has a very different outlook on life, the universe, and everything, you show me that at least some in your generation know how to use their brains. It gives me hope.
There are probably more of us than we think. I feel they are just focusing on their families and careers, keeping quiet until the elections come in.
Oh I think there are. It isn’t mechanical engineer students shouting down conservative speakers.
Now get off of my lawn.
Dude. You’re old.
^^ I’ll agree with these other old fuckers.
Great article Raphael! One quibble:
As a result, I was one of many young minds who merely thought it was a good concept on paper, but bad in application.
Many? It seems as if there are fewer young minds who recognize that than there are libertarian chicks.
Keep writing, kid!
I’ll admit that was more from anecdotal experiences, but seeing how fondly most of my acquaintances and friends regard socialism/democratic socialism, it stuck out to me.
Thank you by the way!
Nice one Raphael. I have often wondered how we can keep this country when so many people simply don’t even know its true history or how unique it is in this world. Having lived in every continent I wish Americans knew that what we have does not exist elsewhere. And I remember the Berlin wall. I saw the evils of communism directly and don’t regret fighting it. It hurts me to see the young of this country now thinking that despicable and evil ideology is cool because of all the nonsense academia, infiltrated by those sympathetic to marxism as a long running campaign that started with the old KGB, has filled their head with. I pray the don’t get to experience what communism really is like first hand, but what I see unfolding leaves me dissolute and worried.
Taking from Peter to buy votes from Paul, especially under the guise of helping Paul while denouncing Peter as a bad person for not giving up whatever unaccountable and inept bureaucrats want, just is galling to me.
I pray we don’t experience what Communism is like first-hand as well. In the end, I can only pray and hope that I along with others here can/will be strong if/when the time comes. A plus side of this lunacy is that it is helping me figure out what I want to do for the future.
Liberty is a candle burning on a dark, cold and windswept moor. I pray that we have the fortitude to shield it from the wind. If it goes out, no one alive now will see it relit.
A question: why do people pretend to expect the public schools to educate children? Because that’s not what they’re for.
Marxist day care.
How’s work? The kid? Your deadlift?
Recently my wife and I were talking to a group of parents at our daughters daycare. Shocked to find out other parents follow the same sharing policy we do. Our policy is teaching voluntary sharing and do not feel obligated to share if another kid wants what you have.
There are more out there than you think.
Work is good and busy. Kid is turning 4 in a month and it’s learning how to use her adorableness as a weapon. The deadlift is suffering because my new gym only has bumper plates, so I can only fit 495 on the bar. On the other hand, the new gym also has BJJ and a shooting range, so it works out.
And the Browns are fun. Life is beautiful.
Excellent. A weaponized daughter is truly a thing to behold. Good luck.
Life is beautiful.
Damn straight.
Hell, I’m waiting to watch all of the bandwagon Steelers fans in Cleveland to start realizing that their team is tied with the Browns. I’m waiting to watch them try to swap back over at some point.
Correct. Public schools throughout the Western world have, as their first goal, the creation of compliant citizens.
Education — not to mention teaching children how to think for themselves — is a mere afterthought at best, and frequently completely ignored.
I focused pretty much exclusively on math and science throughout HS so I never really gave that a thought at the time.
I do not, and did not. Most on this site decry public schools.
POLL: Are your children attending public schools? If not, what education option is being pursued?
I’ll start:
Oldest son – K-1 in public school; alternative (new) private school in NJ 2-11; senior year (his choice) attending public HS
Youngest son – Grade 4 public school; alternative private, Northstar-model middle-school, home-schooled.
Oldest child. Parochial school K-2, public school 1/2 3rd, homeschool. SUNY at 12.
Youngest child. Homeschool K-5, parochial school 6-8, public high school 9-12. Runner up for appointment to a US armed forces academy. Scholarship to RIT.
*takes the mic*
Yo ladies, I’m really happy for you and Imma let you finish, but IQ and socioeconomic status are more impactful variables on final educational attainment than type of schooling of all time. OF ALL TIME!
So you are saying Beyonce is thicc?
Yes, but Kelly Rowland is thiccer.
She was my favorite Destiny’s Child. But I was disappointed when she got a boob job.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2434389/Kelly-Rowland-waited-10-years-boob-job-advice-Beyonces-mother-Tina-Knowles.html
Might be a bit disingenuous as socioeconomic status strongly correlates to quality of schooling across ‘type.’ In other words the public school serving neighborhoods in the upper quintile is likely to be of higher quality, with more qualified teachers than the public schools, or even the private schools, in poor neighborhoods. Not because the per pupil funding is higher either, but because teachers will both self select for such schools and be selected for them by parents.
This is assuming the quality of schooling has a significant impact on final educational attainment.
It doesn’t.
Bingo.
Also, since it’s jargon, I should specify, if you don’t already know, that by “final educational attainment” I don’t mean ‘how much you know’ but how far up the educational ladder (e.g., BS/BA, Master’s, PhD/Professional degree) you end up.
I can see how you could isolate for IQ in such a study, and I can easily believe that native intelligence; however measured, would be the strongest correlate to final educational attainment (hell I’d be suspicious if a study didn’t find such a link), but I don’t see how you could isolate socioeconomic status from quality of schooling as the degree of overlap is very high.
It’s a fair point, but what the data collected so far seems to be saying is that quality of schooling doesn’t really have much of an effect on whether or not a child learns – this is true in a “high” quality school as much as a “low” quality school. On the other hand, socioeconomic status (SES) is reflective of much more than quality of schooling. A good explanation of this can be found here. The money shot of his argument is:
So again, while SES is probably strongly associated with quality of a school district, school quality has such a low effect on an individual’s educational attainment that it is a fairly insignificant variable. However, SES is also associated with other variables that we know to be more impactful – like IQ, health, family structure, etc..
Fair enough. But this study sounds like a one way ticket to unpersoning for the author. If your work shows that success is largely determined by genetics (IQ) and environmental factors that are a: linked to genetics and b: not susceptible to government manipulation (home life conditions), expect the Murray treatment. Not that offending dogmatists isn’t its own reward.
It should be the “Coleman” treatment, as James Coleman got it well before Murray, but yes, The Bell Curve has much of the same argument.
The question was what schooling options we took, not the outcomes.
State University of New York at 12-years-old?
Yes.
And now she’s a dominatrix!! [insert moralistic concern trolling]
Jr. Is in public school. Thats all there is here. I’d home school him if I had the time. Unfortunately I don’t.
I take solace in going over his work with him. He isn’t old enough for the indoctrination to start, but when it does start, we will talk about it.
Probably seen by everyone here before but this H.L. Mencken quote is one of my favs:
“School-days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, brutal violations of common sense and common decency. It doesn’t take a reasonably bright boy long to discover that most of what is rammed into him is nonsense, and that no one really cares very much whether he learns it or not.”
People assume public/government = accountable to the people therefore good and can’t do no wrong. As an aside, my education was mostly from private schools. At least they mentioned the gulags and persecutions there.
I remember my 6th grade teacher (whom really was an ok guy) saying “Communism is great in theory but doesn’t work out well in real life”.
I went home and parroted that to my Dad and he had a stroke. He’s a Kurt Schindler style conservative, he wasn’t going to stand for any sympathy toward that murderous ideology. When I was even younger I remember there was a slide in church (don’t remember the context) that came up with Lenin’s picture on it, he leaned over an whispered in my ear “That there is one of the most evil men who ever lived.” Funny how that stuff stays with you.
*Schlichter
My parents were like that, but I never mentioned that bit to them. That’s awesome about your dad though.
It is and he did a lot to encourage me to seek out a classical education through self-study. The sad part is that he has some glaring holes in his outlooks sometimes when it comes to state power (cops, drug war, some really weird cognitive dissonances in regard to property rights). Over ll though I credit him for starting me down the right path.
My dad was a staunch Reagan Republican, supported Bush, loved Rush (Limbaugh, not the band), and it took him being the commander of his American Legion chapter to really start realizing how much the government can fuck with you. He’s started to realize the power of the petty bureaucrats, and is slowly waking up.
I was in AP history all through high school. 1998-2002. Not one mention of Communism, good or bad. Same when I was in college. My social science courses were loaded with communist brainwashing. If I wasn’t already a Libertarian going into it, I may have had to been deprogrammed.
My US government administered schooling began in the early ’80s and ended in ’93. Though my recollection is often hazy I don’t remember communism ever being mentioned even once. You’d think that the collapse of it happening right when I entered high school would have made it a significant topic of interest at least in my history courses, but nary a peep was made of it. They did quite enthusiastically focus on the New Deal and the Great Society though. Curious, that.
I was raised by a Republican socon and a Reagan Democrat so that didn’t make me all-left, but I didn’t get the deprogramming I needed until college when I became friends with a classmate who was campaigning for Ron Paul and a libertarian who frequently took me out to the shooting range.
I started to take a graduate level polisci class in grad school. Me and five other students,all from eastern Europe. The prof started off with the communism is good nonsense. We all dropped the class. He made his little speech and there was silence. Then a Ukrainian woman said “if there is ever a time machine, I will find a way to steal it,go back in time, and strangle Marx and Engels in their cradle.” More silence. Then the prof said, “well, I hope you’ll have an open mind.” Again, we ALL dropped the class.
Good on you and your classmates.
Excellent. This needs to happen more often.
This Ukranian woman you speak of…
…was she hot?
When does the shooting start? Asking for a friend.
A library card and a little motivation will get you a better education than a trip to the ivy leave without the motivation.
Very true, and especially with the vast technological resources we have today.
Locke’s quote is pretty much my travels in education.
In school – up to university – it was one thing. Then came the personal journey. I spend quite a bit on time and books. Sometimes I wonder if it’s wasteful but I just enjoy it too much. There are so many interesting works of literature and history in the West. I have a pile of 10-12 books at any given time to get to.
One book I can’t believe never gets mentioned is ‘The Gulag Archipelago’. If you read that, you understand how progressive thinking leads to the destruction of liberty.
We were assigned to read A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich at the very least, but YES, The Gulag Archipelago does not get as many mentions as it truly deserves.
Holy shit, Bulgaria is dropping out. This is a good sign for the spring ’19 offensive, guys.
Thanks Raphael. I love this place. Pieces like this spawn great discussions and get me thinking even if I don’t say much. Back in awhile – off the start THE LAW.
Enjoy the read, it’s quite a good trip!
Indeed it is,
One life, one God, one hope…..just gimme Fried Chicken
Fried chicken?
I’m a bit jealous, Raphael. For those of you not aware, Aomori is about as sticksville as you’ll find in Japan. I’ve been around the country on vacations, but only ever lived in Tokyo. IOW, if the SHTF, I was only an hour or so from the airport. Knowing that you better have some close connections with the natives in case the worst happens is going to give you some insight into human nature. Interesting article.
Wait, Rapael, you’re in Aomori? We should meet up. I’m here for a little bit.
I was really blessed the people in my town are mostly nice and I came during a rather desperate time for them so they greatly appreciated it. You just gave me a few ideas for future pieces though. *muses deeply*
Aye, Mustang, I’m in Aomori. Shoot, how long?
Email mustang dot 314 at protonmail dot com.
About a month.
Oh shiz, all right, I’ll definitely try to drop a message then! I got a bunch of school festivals to attend this month, but I got a friday or two I can take off.
When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s Aomori.
Bravo, you almost made me laugh at work.
Good article.
Ad a guy who was kicked out of school in tenth grade and possesses basically no education, I appreciate it.
I’m glad you could appreciate it too. Hope you and your family are doing well!
Why is it every time I hear the names Murkowski/Collins/Flake, my thoughts go to woodchippers and rusty chainsaws?
(That’s a JOKE, FBI!!! A JOKE!!!)
If we could read minds and see the calculations they are using for whether to vote yes/no on Kav, we’d probably join a militia.
It probably looks something like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9EYt_f12wo
My brother lives in Maine, I asked him once how Maine Republicans can keep electing Susan Collins, a woman who puts the ‘INO’ in RINO…..she is the most reliable crossover candidate, above and beyond rotting balls McCain, which is saying something. He responded “she’s from big money and nobody can afford to challenge her.” Bullshit.
Flake is gone in a couple of months. Murkowski will get primaried again and it will stick next time. I bet after the November election the Republicans will have enough reinforcements to just ignore their bullshit.
I just start listening to The Three-Body Problem today. That first scene at the height of the Cultural Revolution sounds like a wet-dream of the campus progs.
That is some scary shit. I know it’s trite but “I can’t imagine that happening here”.
I can imagine it on campuses – it already has in some ways. But they can’t pour out of the schools and start beating and shamming regular people in the U.S. because we’ll fucking shoot them.
We are seeing hints of it every day of late. Dogma is the enemy. Not just the specific dogma of the left, but any ‘truth’ that is elevated to unquestionable dogma leads to a willingness to dehumanize the heretics and once you have that you are on your way to hell on earth. Whether it is Torquemada burning Moslems, the Caliphate beheading Yezidis, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Ho, Pol Pot et al. starving ‘wreckers’, Hitler gassing Jews, it’s all the same thing people throwing away doubt and turning belief into dogma.
Speaking of stuff we never learned. How about The Republic of Island Stream nestled between Canada and that country to this south whatsisname?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lob7ANulHWY
Love this exchange:
Dank Matter
1 month ago
I thought Canada didn’t exist tho
Some Asshole
1 month ago
I live in Canada. Can confirm that Canada does not actually exist.
“Hello World
1 month ago
It doesn’t really matter much in the end. As a New Hampshirite I can tell you that I am pretty sure the only thing that is up there in Pittsburg, NH is just a live free or die sign surrounded by libertarian bears and abandoned snow plows.”
We have libertarian bears and still no women!
Jesse lives in New Hampshire?
That’s like the plot for Super Troopers 2.
“As a final note, I wish to encourage everyone here to follow John Locke’s advice to take a few moments when you can to sit down and read a book, even if it’s one with content you may strongly disagree with (if anything, you can learn how to argue against a particular idea/belief more effectively)”
That’s an important point. Always avail yourself of the opposing view. It’s not so much so you can argue against it more effectively. Because arguing with people over their beliefs is largely a waste of time. It’s that it makes your own beliefs closer to truth. Whenever someone proves you wrong, you are the one who has won.
But if I read one more word at everydayfeminism I’m going to stick a fork in my eye.
Availing yourself of the opposing viewpoint doesn’t require you to eat toxic word salad 3 meals a day 🙂
Fair enough. It’s OK to ignore sites like everydayfeminism, just like it’s OK to ignore the MRA sites that oppose them. They are both derivative. However, it’s beneficial to have an understanding of what third-wave feminism believes. I’ll offer a brief summary: first-wave feminism is based on de jure equality, second-wave feminism is based on de facto equality, and third-wave feminism is based on the supernatural. Arguably, it’s core text — which I read — is Susan Brownmiller’s Against Our Will, written in 1975. It’s main tenets are that there is a “patriarchy” that perpetuates “rape culture” to oppress women. The existence of either entity is unfalsifiable. Brownmiller’s claims were not based on fact and reason, but rather a need for an emotionally incendiary ideology. Which lead to such magical beliefs such as “women never lie about rape”.
Oh I know, I was just joshing – and I’m glad I have you’ll to enact my labor for me.
Ugh – “y’all”
You’re one smart potato.
You bring up a valid point. I’ve been considering recent conversations with “friends” and as much as I want to try/believe otherwise, arguing over beliefs doesn’t help all that much.
My brother and I talk two or three times a week for an hour or so at a pop. He used to be a straight GOP ticket voter, but changed and is now a libertarian. Wish I could say it was my superior debate skills that did it, but it was the fact that GOPe predictions never met reality that changed him. Know we argue but it’s more the Wright brother’s style of debate. It’s not like we aren’t familiar with the statist views given we’re marinating in it.
CP, couldn’t agree with this more.
One story about David Hume that stuck with me is the time he got stuck in a bog. A woman was nearby whom he asked for help but she recognized him.
“Aren’t you David Hume, the atheist?”
She refused to help him unless he recited the Apostle’s Creed—so he recited it. That was how well he understood religion and the tenents of Christianity, even if he didn’t believe it himself.
I took philosophy courses in college because they were interesting to me, not because they were required. From what I’ve read, Hume always seemed to start with a conclusion and try to work backwords.
Well Done, Thank You for the insight,
Keep it up!
Thanks, Yusef, will do! Looking forward to more of your diorama pieces!
Thanks for writing, this post, Raphael! I am happy to know several in your age group who are coming to have the same attitudes about self-education. It’s encouraging.
Thank you based SP.
Why you should hate politicians, point 1,283,458,888:
I have the same attitude towards this as I do athletes who miss critical games (or, if you’re an NFL athlete – any fucking game, I don’t care about the birth of your child when you’re being paid to show up 16 days of the year) for personal reasons. You volunteered for this position, you are given quite a bit for it. The entire vote should be delayed so you can get your ass in to do your job?
Khabib Nurmagemedov was asked how he could fight on the day his kid was born and not be there for her. “What could I have done? Hold her hand?” He’s fighting Connor Saturday BTW. In case you’re wondering who’s gonna win, here’s some real footage of him wrestling a bear at age 4. Dude is gonna maul Connor. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KohIwZCkuuU
If it goes the distance, he’ll tear up MacGregor. MacGregor has a chance though in early rounds if he catches him off guard like Aldo.
My money is on Khabib.
In the long ago days when the left had not yet dropped their mask Senator’s used to pair up across the aisle to allow for this sort of situation. In other words if Sen. Ron Republican had a wedding he had to attend Sen. Dave Dem would pair his vote and also sit out. It was an idea that recognized that common decency is more important than winning an individual vote.
I was thinking about that too but had doubts he could trust anyone. They’ll just hold it tomorrow or Monday.
It’s an obvious sign you don’t give a shit.
Same happened at this year’s Davis Cup – America’s top player couldn’t be bothered to attend because childbirth. Fuck you, too.
Then fucking hold it tomorrow.
Exactly
Personally, I think family has priority over politics.
But it also may be a sign the Republicans know they have the votes. Even though not everybody has officially announced, they have counted and don’t need him.
This isn’t a political dispute where we’re asking someone to ostracize a family member over politics. It’s an example where someone – someone who in an elite position in our government along with just 99 others – has decided that a critical vote is less significant than a memory. It’s a complete lack of commitment from someone who chose to be in his position. Not to mention the fact that these guys have more than enough time off where they aren’t doing their main job – voting. This is by far the most important vote he’s had since joining the Senate.
They vote on things that critically impact the lives of Americans. They vote to send people off to war, and god knows how many soldiers miss big family events (to include last seconds with a loved one) because of it. You have a mess in DC over this vote.
OT: Today in cite fucking needed
Wat?? Come on.
How fortunate for the continued funding of an “anti-slavery” NGO!
If they used my definition of slavery and included the whole planet, the number would be in the billions.
Instead of being stuck behind a desk studying linguistics, you could be out in the fresh air and sunshine picking cotton and singing songs.
How to Serve Man is a cookbook! A cookbook!
There’s actually a musical number in a cotton field in the Mamie Van Doren movie Untamed Youth.
Late but apt. A most racist field-trip
There’s a point where if you’ve actually been a slave for 40 years in the modern West, you probably deserved it. Yes, I’m victim shaming. I find that story unbelievable.
It is remarkably short on details, isn’t it?
It’s far higher than that if you account for all the WAGE SLAVES
Maybe 8 years ago my sister hosted an exchange student from Germany that was born in 90s. When I asked a few questions about east/west Germany she had no clue.
Great article.
I made my first trip to Moscow in 1994. It was dark, dreary, and scary. It was obvious that communism/socialism had pretty much destroyed the economy.
Well, now that I posted that in totally the wrong thread….
Aaron Judge’s double last night was a foul ball. Just say’n.
Also one of the better portraits of Jacob Marley that I’ve seen.
Every time one of the Microsoft AI commercials with Common is shown, all I can think is, “man, he really needs to stop skipping leg day”. : Caw! Ca-caw! Ca-caw! Ca-caw!
https://youtu.be/hR59pJX1acg
Article from the NYT of an alternate universe. It must be.
Good piece. Great piece. A truly liberal piece. Bravo Bret Stephens. Ditto the NYT. Cooler heads and all. I won’t even be snide about the lateness of it, I don’t think anyone could have seen how quickly and how far things would degenerate. And I won’t speculate that perhaps the specter of Democratic losses in the midterms is a major source of their newfound contrition on the matter. I’ll just say I hope they have the honesty to castigate Feinstein, Booker, Coon, and the rest of their sordid leadership for this pathetic stunt. Would that we all had such courage.
I went and looked. I thought he got fired for his article on climate change. But apparently he hasn’t.
“A third moment, connected to the second: Listening to Cory Booker explain on Tuesday that “ultimately” it doesn’t matter if Kavanaugh is “guilty or innocent,” because “enough questions” had been raised that it was time to “move on to another candidate.”
This is a rhetorical sleight of hand in three acts: Elide the one question that really matters; raise a secondary set of “questions” that are wholly the result of the question you’ve decided to ignore; call for “another candidate” because it will push confirmation hearings past the midterms, which was the Democratic objective long before most anyone had ever heard of Blasey’s allegation.”
So if enough white women raise “enough questions” it doesn’t matter if Black Spartacus is “guilty or innocent” it’s time to move on to hanging him from a tree?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6241737/Amy-Schumer-Emily-Ratajowski-scores-arrested-desperate-bid-stop-Kavanaugh.html
Bullshit.
Oh, Em Rat, I thought you were smart enough to avoid such nonsense.
Why? She’s a terrible actress.
She’s an actress? I thought she was just a smokeshow featured in the the Daily Fail
(I’ve never actually seen her “act” – I don’t think the Blurred Lines video counts as acting, though that was some fine work).
Yes, she’s been in a number of movies and TV shows.
This was awful:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3787590/
I’d ask if she got naked in it, but she’s basically shown everything multiple times in the Daily Mail.
I don’t think she did.
She was spectacularly naked in Gone Girl
Left wing zealots are brave.
Would be a good stage job by uncle chucky.
Jesus, with the Pats turnovers.
Communism is total state control of the subjects of the state. Its telling that state run schools dont have any curriculum on the crimes of communists.
https://archive.is/MfpaW/e2f76e0ca65a6c8f7dff27d513a335cfaa2bfc6b
https://archive.is/MfpaW/3b855cd159673ef13ff8315e3e373d4f518b04d5
https://archive.is/MfpaW/9afecb0e14caa566f7ce3e11e9edea892db4bc1e
https://archive.is/MfpaW/b7f659f17cfb32db12496980d1a579689cdb4943
https://archive.is/MfpaW/e68b5117551b10e577198f6bb489c96d54499799
https://archive.is/MfpaW/37e5435a2ad3bf0b51f477e6f54af803250b63f5
https://archive.is/MfpaW/6ee70fe087c018d44a65d0bcdf5578eac8a564dc
https://archive.is/MfpaW/75b4346053560c1f609ca9f3c43dd4d273e899e6
https://archive.is/MfpaW/ebd0c076ab9499a93a1c2a11d4b7823084bffef7
https://archive.is/MfpaW/33d597568798712899aabe08cef30a4beb6084bd
That last one, in the pool – that’s the one.
Fuck you AV Club. Fuck. You.
I’d be willing to lay down $1,000 that Trey and Matt had no interest in referencing the Kavanaugh hearings in the episode about the Catholic Church covering up priests molesting children. And thankfully, the comments are calling them out on that bullshit.
Makes sense – Trey and Matt are such wilting flowers, they rarely address things directly, but do so via allegory. /sarc
Holy fuck, the insertion of some bullshit hot-take on the topic du jour where it doesn’t belong is a big pet peeve – turned into an art-form by the fucking internet.
I’ve yet to see a single comment agreeing with the Kavanaugh reference. There’s also a side reference that when Father Maxi says bad apples, it’s an obvious reference to the police shooting scandals. You would have to be an English major (at a post-grad level) to be digging that deep for the SYMBOLOGY of fucking South Park.
South Park is known for being incredibly subtle. It is known.
Usually I would see it in reference to the annus horribilis that we as a nation suffered in late 2016 but lately I’m seeing it everywhere.
It sounds like someone woke who is trying to rationalize in their head why they like a show that really isn’t woke and in fact jabs at his wokeness constantly.
From the tone of the reviews, it doesn’t even seem like he enjoys the show. If I had to guess, he pulled the short straw and has to review it. While he’s digging for these subtle symbols, he misses things like Stan having his arm in a sling (because he was shot in the arm last episode), and complains about the lack of continuity this season.
How bad do your reviews have to be that the comments are the better reflection of the show? FFS, this is the internet.
We need more non lefty literature majors if the state and society are going to continue placing importance on government endorsed paper qualifications. I’d prefer it not be the way it is, but that’s the world. I want people who will push back on the moral scolds wherever they are. History depts, lit departments, hell, even sociology depts need to be infiltrated. Part of the war for minds is being fought in these places, so why not challenge them on their own turf? Asymmetrical warfare.
Madness!
I have been assured many times in these fora that if one doesn’t graduate from college with a Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering, one is condemned to a penniless life of sucking dick in public park restrooms for food stamps.
I thought that was more of a hobby than a necessity.
All libertarians are in IT or EE, except the few of us that are disgruntled lawyers. This is known. You sirrah, cannot be a libertarian; libertine thou art and libertine remain!
20 dollars is 20 dollars, fam.
/snark off for second.
That shit bothers me too, HM.
Meh, I know my degree is worth less than John Wayne Toilet paper.
If you don’t need the qualification, don’t do it. I needed mine to get my foot in the door. My lit degree wasn’t worthless even though the courses were taught by lefties. Learning from your enemy can be more valuable than learning from your allies.
I, and I think many others here, aren’t anti-STEM – it’s just a risk/reward thing.
A non-STEM degree has become something of a luxury good, at current prices.
Going deep in debt for a PhD in History, then having to compete for a vanishingly-small number of positions that pay comparatively little seems a trifle reckless.
HM, knowing the job market as you do, and knowing how deeply in debt you’d be if you got your degrees today, would you have any hesitations if a beloved family member wanted to follow in your footsteps? The debt doesn’t go away if you can’t find a position.
I’d be happy to get back to “not everyone goes to college” and “you can pay for college while waiting tables”, but those days are gone.
The idea of undergraduate degrees as credentials/occupational licenses is really annoying to me, (as is the attitude HM is objecting to here of mockery for anyone who studies outside the STEM world). You don’t get a liberal education (traditional meaning of liberal) because it is going to bring you money, you get it because being a rounded thinking person involves studying science, math, literature, philosophy and history, and universities are (were?) the best place to do that study. And yes STEM fanbois I am calling you out, the T and E are properly grouped in with the professional schools like law, medicine, and accounting whereas the S and M belong with us liberal arts folks!
The idea of undergraduate degrees as credentials/occupational licenses is really annoying to me
That ship has sailed. Griggs v. Duke Power Co. killed it, among others.
(that’s a seriously mixed-metaphor)
Well, I should qualify that. When I started college, the technical things I learned were groundbreaking techniques. But it took me too long to earn my degree due to circumstances. My emphasis was on the technical side of the arts. How to edit, how to run studio cameras etc. By the time I finished the degree much of what I had learned had been outpaced by technology. Only 1 local TV station still has studio camera men, and when Obamacare hit they cut them all down to part time, and since I live on periphery they didn’t think I’d stick around so didn’t offer the job. Where I’m at now I had the same degree as from the same school from the same time period as 4 full-time employees, but because of the nature of the market and that I didn’t enter into it later I’ve been treated the same as HS dropouts who come to work drunk.
Well, I’m not the best case for that. Linguistics, especially various shades of applied linguistics, is in demand. If I could go back in time, I’d convince myself to specialize in sentiment analysis and have Facebook or Amazon’s Alexa team knocking at my door. I did do some consulting work for a startup news aggregator back in the day, but nothing like it is now.
But the thing is, liberal arts have historically been luxury goods. The “liberal” in liberal arts meant that one was a gentleman “free” from having to work for a living and could devote himself to such study, as opposed to the mechanical arts or fine and performing arts that depended on patronage.
That having been said, there are plenty of successful people who studied and work outside of technical fields – it depends more on motivation, really. For example, my daughter has a keen interested in art, dance, and theater. She also has really good chops in math. If she decided to go to art school or performing arts, I wouldn’t sweat it too much as I know she has the work ethic to be successful in whatever she pursues. I also know that she is smart enough to do anything she wants to do in case it doesn’t work out. Yes, I would encourage her to think about going to the institutions that I can send her for free or at a discount thanks to my work benefits, but if she chose a more expensive school for whatever reason, I would do what I could to see if a reasonable financial plan to attend it could be formulated. I wouldn’t push her into a career that I believed to be more lucrative. My family is close with another family that pushed both sons and the daughter to be engineers like dad. All three were miserable. The oldest became a backwoods guide, the daughter went back to school to become a doctor, and the middle kid has gone through some troubles his whole adult life. And knowing my daughter, telling her to do something is the best way to get her not to do it.
By the time I finished the degree much of what I had learned had been outpaced by technology.
That’s a thing with STEM-type degrees too, especially with CS/MIS (especially the latter). I started my Masters in CS but dropped it since I was learning far more on the job than in the classroom.
In retrospect I would have benefited from a more solid grounding in theory that a CS degree would have provided, but no actual skills would be directly applicable (e.g., they had us writing things in Pascal).
In practice, I’m self-taught though I have a STEM-ish degree – I have had co-workers who never went to college, but that’s all in the past. Now it’s a degree is a checkmark item, though there are rumblings in the industry about that possibly being relaxed.
As mentioned above, I think it’s largely because pre-employment testing has been rendered toothless by the law.
As CPRM pointed out, tech changes so fast these days that if I’m hiring, I want someone that can adapt quickly and follow instruction. Of course, for cutting edge tech work you probably need someone whose life has been dedicated to keeping up with the last tech. Otherwise, you can get a sharp lib arts person up to speed faster than a dolt that went into tech because his dad told him to.
To be clear, I’m not calling CPRM a dolt.
Interesting – even as freshly-minted grads?
Oh, agreed, but the alternative wasn’t some other degree, it was no degree. Now that “a degree” is a checkmark item for employment, treating it as something other than a luxury seems prudent. I don’t approve of this situation, but here we are.
It sounds like at least 2 of the three should not have gone on to higher ed at all. There’s nothing magical about a STEM degree, I’m just arguing “if you must spend a vast amount of money on college/university, pursue a degree with a better chance of at least paying back the debt”. Non-STEM degrees are less likely to pay off.
I’m actively encouraging my nephew to go for a trade – college will be a wild waste of time for him and a waste of money for my brother. Other family members would be aghast he’s not going to college, but it strikes me as an insane waste of money in such a case.
Again, I’d like if we could go back to:
– pre-employment testing is fine, legally
– not everyone goes to college (which would likely flow from the above)
And forward to:
– schools are on the hook for at least part of student loans
I can get food stamps for that!?
No, but if you suck dick in an Arby’s bathroom you might be able to get some free sandwiches.
No more dog food for commodious spittoon!
That’s actually one of my future goals/plans. It’ll take a me a bit of a while (about another year or two) but I’m seriously considering getting a Florida teacher’s certificate so I can teach history in schools back in my old home state (mostly middle schools or high schools). I’m sick of these guys having a monopoly and I don’t think I can necessarily save my friends and classmates, but maybe I can make a difference for the newer kids on the block.
If you do, just be prepared for how hostile that environment can be to nonconformists. Good for you if you’re up for the fight. If you’re not, maybe check another path.
I run in some hostile lefty circles (mostly just observe, not post) at the moment courtesy of old friends who went woke. I know this will be a different and much harder fight, but I want to do what I can. Thanks Straff, as well as the rest of you all here.
reminds me of the depth film professors give to innocuous images. The craziest I can remember off hand; in the film The Seventh Seal there is a shot of a stump and a squirrel climbs on top of it. I prof go into a whole spiel about how that was imagery of the cycle of death and rebirth. It was a fucking squirrel on a stump. Sure, Bergman could have intended that interpretation, but the prof offered no evidence that he did. It was just his ‘hot take’ intellectual style.
This happens all the time in music journalism. Drives me nuts.
I don’t understand modern baseball. Ryu had gone through 7 scoreless and struck out the last batter he faced. Why in the fuck would you take him out? Because he’s thrown 100 pitches? Fuck me.
Do you even sabermetrics bro?
It’s annoying I agree.
Not as annoying as Maddon taking Rizzo out. Or the A’s starting a reliever against a power hitting machine like the Yankees.
Managers over manage sometimes but this is how the game is played now.
Over in the NFL there is a big stink between Aaron Rogers and Mike McCarthy over play calling. I’m confused as to why if Rogers doesn’t like the plays called he doesn’t change them at the line? Instead of bitching about if you think you know the answer than do it, and take the consequences. The Packers would sooner jettison McCarthy than Rogers, so I don’t get if he thinks he knows how to run the offence better he just doesn’t just do it. Although, he is complaining about how few runs are called, but it seems half the time runs are called Rogers audibles to a shitty one man WR screen that nets 2yds…
I like Aaron Rodgers. But he is no Peyton Manning.
No, he is no Peyton Manning. He isn’t immobile and doesn’t have an eighthead.
I LOL’ed.
I briefly thought about doing a photoshop article about news stories like I did for another site, but the news is too stupid to out do now, but here is what I did when Peyton retired.
Yeah, he doesn’t bitch enough about the refereeing to get the rules changed the way Manning did after the 2004 AFCCG.
He’s a weird cat that guy.
Wooo! Sony Michel with the big stiff-arm – not quite at the level that Steelers player had last week, but solid.
Just rewatched the Steeler’s stiff-arm – holy smokes, does Vance McDonald just toss this guy away from him.
Reminds me of this for some reason:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=317UxnIXvTw
Chara ragdolling McCabe.
I’m a lackadaisical Bruins fan, but I love Big Z. That fight is amazing.
I don’t know, it may be me but not buying into these Jim Beam commercials with Mila Kunis.
I’m sure that 105 lb girl just downs Beam on the regular.
Yeh, I’m not sure how often a girl says, ‘make it two’.
Are they marketing to women?
No, they are marketing to men who think if they drink Jim Beam they can sleep with Mila Kunis.
If you drink enough beam maybe the 50 year old waffle house waitress with the three pack a day gravelly voice and the selection of interesting scars becomes Mila, or at least Mila enough for the night
She’s not that hot anymore. I think losing weight for Black Swan took a toll on her.
They don’t call being successful ‘fat and happy‘ without reason.
She’s 35. Most women don’t really hang on through their 30’s. And overrated to begin with.
Also, she’s fucking Ashton Kutcher. That a lone makes her like 3 points less attractive to me.
She loses 3 points for being with a libertarian(ish) celeb?
I don’t know what Kutcher says his politics are. Alls I know is that it’s hard to imagine any libertarian making this video. Even Robby cringes at that.
He also gave this speech.
Sounds like a lot of sophistry to me.
But I am a fan of ‘Dude Where’s My Car?’
Hail Zoltan.
Hal Sparks deserved more fame than he got.
Yeah, sure!
It’s not just you.
15 years til Babushka, check out the jowls,
LOL tough crowd
Shut up, Meg.
This makes me laugh every time.
HM, if you’re still around, your Taliban Guys gave me an idea, 2×2,
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xFg1nMfFtdY3f9Uv5
Nice! I really like your Afghan houses. A trick I’ve learned that you may know is that if you paint the outside walls with and undercoat of gesso, it really looks like it has the texture of adobe.
The 2 story has just that, might be hard to see, but it really makes the place look good, I’ll post one when I’m finished.
D-Day, one more day, then finished
I’m late to the party. Great article Raphael.
Same excuse, and same praise. Going to have to come back to this when I have more sit down time and watch the videos.
Obligatory
Oh, and I wanted to change things up a smidgen. So, name/avatar update.
John McClain was a misogynist who hated that his liberated wife was no longer using his name, when seen through this lens it is quite clear that his attacks against the ‘terrorists’ are actually abuses towards his wife that he is trying to justify. It is all a sick fantasy of men who who wish to use violence against women. /give me my honorary degree in women’s studies
You’ll have to pick it up from her
I’ll just hopscotch across these fighter jets and be right over.
This guy should be out there trolling. https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1047624312243466243
The Man in the
Iron MaskOrange Hair.Not that presidential look-alikes ever meant anything to me, but, that does give me a chuckle.
Is it possible to die from tedious, ridiculous bullshit?
Because…DAMN. I don’t know how FT could stand to watch his straw-manning over and over in order to make that video.
His attempt at debunking libertarianism is such a fail that anyone that viewed it objectively would be like, “Hey, that looks pretty good.”
Work has been outrageously busy. So I’m way late here, but wanted to say thanks for an interesting submission!